Energy enterprises for development in rural areas: the case of clean cooking – project in progress

The goal of this project was to illustrate how rural energy services can be enhanced in a sustainable manner through integration with increased income, employment and improved livelihood.  The first demonstration of our village-based energy-development model has been completed.

A dairy and an associated biogas distribution system have been established in a village (Chikkana Devara hatti, Tumkur district, Karnataka state) in south-western India.  The dairy provides employment for local people, its waste fuels biogas generation, whose effluents are used as fertilizer, and its milk sales financially support the operation.  Establishing the dairy has involved construction of cattle-housing, office, and water-supply facilities, purchase of cattle, and training of the local staff for the daily tasks.  For efficient distribution of biogas, eight digesters have been constructed, each connected by pipelines to the closest cluster of homes around it.  All the homes in the village, earlier dependent on traditional stoves fuelled with collected biomass, are supplied with biogas.  This shift to biogas for all cooking and heating needs has enabled people to avoid fuel-gathering and has resulted in increased fuel-efficiency, and reduced cooking time and stove-emissions (and related indoor pollution).  This energy-development model is unique in that it reaches the poorest, is financially and environmentally sustainable, and innovatively uses proven technologies. (For more details, please contact ieiblr@vsnl.com).


Extensions of the above village energy-development project are being planned.  More importantly, the lessons learnt from the demonstration experience described above are being used in planning for adaptation and replication of the model in other locations.
 

Energy for Sustainable Development (ESD), the journal of the International Energy Initiative

The second issue of the twelfth volume of IEI’s quarterly journal Energy for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been published this month.  It has special sections on wind energy and energy efficiency.  [Click here for the abstracts].

ESD is a peer-reviewed journal encompassing energy issues -- technologies, goals, and policies, from around the world, but focusing on developing countries.  The dedicated ESD web site contains all the 52 issues published thus far; these are accessible at www.esd-journal.org.  While abstracts of all articles are available to the public, the complete texts of the articles are available to subscribers.

  


 

Online course on Energy for Sustainable Development at IIEEE-Sweden

 The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University, Sweden, is delivering a new session of an online course in the field of Energy for Sustainable Development (E4SD).  The E4SD initiative is collaboratively run by the IIIEE, UNDP, UNEP, and the Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development (GNESD) and its central aim is to provide deeper knowledge of energy’s relationship to sustainable development in the developing world.

The next course session is scheduled from 18 August – 28 September 2008, and the application deadline for this session is 15 July 2008.  More information about the course including details on how to apply can be accessed at www.e4sd.org.